Street-sweeper.



n. H. PINOH. STREET SWEEPBR.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 20 1912v Patented Feb. 8, 1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

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if attozwu a D. H. FINGH.

STREET SWEEPER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 20, 1912.

Patented Feb. 3, 1914 2 SHEETS-SHEBTL.

u N [M m Tl \v% mg NM N q/vi/tmeowo DWIGHT H. FINCH, 0F MANCHESTER,IOWA.

. STREET-SWEEPER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 3, 1914.

Application filed Kay 20, 1812. Serial No. 695,558.

cially to street sweepers; and the object of the same is to produce atrailing street sweeper which may be attached to the back of a wagonorcart and which will deliver into the latter'the sweepings as Well asthe dust extracted from the air stirred up by the brush, and will purifythe air separated from the dust before the former is passed out of themachine back into the atmos-' phere. This and other objects areaccomplished by the construction hereinafter more fully described andclaimed, and as shown in the drawings wherein- Figure l is a sideelevation of this ma chine complete; Fig. 2 is a cross section on theline 2-2 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a central vertical longitudinalsection.

In the drawin s the numeral 1 designates a frame mounted on wheels 2 anddragged by a tongue 3 or other connection with a Wagon or cartindicated'at L and into which the dirt and dust is to be delivered, andon the frame is mounted an engine 5 (preferably driven by gasolene)which furnishes the motive power for the machinery to be described. 1The shaft of this engine is connected by bevel gears and shaft 6 to theshaft of a large rotary brush 7 which is driven in the direction of thearrow beneath an upwardly curved sheet metal hood 8, andthe dirt sopicked up from the street by the brush is delivered across an apron 13to an elevator 9 consisting of buckets or blades fast on an endless beltmoving within a casing as shown, and by the same is dropped into thewagon box 4. ,The belt at its lower end passes around-a pulley 10 fixedat the center of a shaft 11 which carries spiral conveyors 12 atopposite-sides ofv the pulley, each mounted within a trough l3 extendinacross the front of the hood 8, and one en of the shaft 11 has asprocket connected by a belt 12 with another sprocket on the shaft ofthe brush. With this construction the rotation of the latter tosses thedirt into the trough 13, where it is engaged by the conveyer, and earnedto the center under the pulley 10, and there it is taken up by thebuckets-or flights on the belt 9 and raised through the elevator casingand dropped into the wagon box. This detail of construction permitsme-to use a rather long brush, possibly eight feet in length, from whichit will be seen that the path cleanedby this street sweeper isconsiderably wider than the path traveled by a wagon of ordinary width.

In rear of the brush and its hood is situated a suction nozzle orchamber 15 whose walls converge downward to a point near the groundbehind the rear wall of said hood 8; and this nozzle by preferencecarries rollers 16 standing just in rear of the brush, capable oftraveling on the ground and permitting the open end of the nozzle tostand adjacent thereto. The upper end'of the nozzle or chamber 15communicates with a suction fan 17, preferably driven from the sameengine or source of power 5, and the dust-laden air drawn upward throughthe nozzle 15 by the fan 17 is-delivered into a pipe 18 by which it isconveyed tangentially into the upper end 19 of a dust collector. Hereinit swirls around and around until its momentum is spent, when the dustfalls through the tapering body 20 to its apex, which through a flexibleconnection 21 delivers it into the elevator so that it joins the dirtbeing carried upward therein and is finally dumped into the wagon box 4.The upper end 22 of the collector is closed except for an outlet 23 forthe air, from which a pipe 24 leadsdownward into an open topped chamber25 containing water and disinfectant, after striking upon which the airmay pass out the top of the chamber into the outside atmosphere. Bypreference I employ a spray nozzle 30 directed upward into the lower endof the outlet pipe 24, and

the air-moving down such pipe is sprayed by means of water forced upwardthrough the nozzle by a pump 31 driven from the same source of power;and the water falls back into the chamber. When this detail is employedtheair issuing from the dust collector is thoroughly moistened (andpossibly also disinfected) and is therefore delivered 11 able means forwashing or cleansing the air,

. raised lector where the dust proper is separated :1

washed and delivered back into the atmosmay beemployed without departingfrom the principles of my invention, as it relates more particularly tothe street sweeper proper. v. a

The action of this machine will now be clearly understood. As it passesover the pavement or ground the sweepings from the rush are tossedacross. the apron and car:

ried upward bythe elevator and the dust 'y'the brush is conveyed intothe colfro n'. the air which latter is afterward phere'. The suctionnozzle 15, in addition to picking up the dust raised by the brush, iscarried so near to the surface of the ground or pavement by the smallrollers 16, that what dust or dirt is not brushed up by the brush 7 istaken up by thesuction of air so that the ground or pavement is leftcomparatively clean after the passage of this machine. I

All parts are of course of the desired sizes, shapes, proportionsandmaterials, and

changes in details may be made without departing from the essentialprinciple.

What is claimed. as new is:

In a street cleaning machine, the combination with the runnin gear, therotary brush, and a dust-collector aving an inlet conduit Whosereceiving end stands adjacent said brush; of a hood overlying the brushwith its rear wall'connected to said receiving end and its front wallinclined forward and downward, thence bent to the rear in a troughstanding parallel with said brush, and thence extended rearward anddown- Ward toward the brush to. form an apron, a double-spiral conveyerwithin said trough,

and an upwardly inclined elevator whose casing is in communication withthe discharge end of said dust collector and whoselower end is incommunication with the center of the trough between said conveyers- Intestimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

DWIGHT H. FINGH.

Witnesses:

- A. M. CLOUD,

F. A. LUNDELL.

